Do you think your name helps or hinders you in life?

[BrickPoet]

Hindered in primary due to too many with the same first name

My name is Elizabeth but always refer to myself as Lizzie. Get actually really annoyed when people use the wrong name!!

My name is Alexandra. I regularly get called “Alexander” in doctors/dentist waiting rooms, over the phone, in work emails. It’s infuriating.

I go by Alex most of the time and a new starter at work asked if my name was “Alec”. I replied “As in Baldwin?” Felt mean but it just riled me up. It’s not a difficult name to get wrong 😂

Helped 😁 Or at least has never caused me any issues. My name is classic and popular enough that most people never comment on it. Everyone knows how to say and spell it ( there’s loads of examples of my name in songs, books, films etc) and its well used in many countries - yet I was the only one in school (as it’s only occasionally made it into the very lower end of the top 100 in the UK - so it’s not that popular and is fairly timeless/ non- dated).

In fact, I feel so lucky my parents chose the name they did that I really struggled to name my own DC as it was quite hard to find a name that had all those qualities! 🤣In the end I gave my DS a name that is more popular than might be ideal, but is still at least timeless and international, everyone knows how to say and spell it, lots of pop culture examples etc (think Thomas, William, Alexander type name). Time will tell whether he’ll be bothered that they’ll likely be at least another couple of boys with the same name at senior school.

I’m curious as to what a “lower class” name is?

Are there any similar to yours that you can share?

Very common name in my home country so no fewer than six of us in my class all through primary — it took me until I was living in my mid-20s in another country to actually respond if called, as I was so used to it being someone else. Unfortunately it then attracted xenophobic ethnic slurs in the UK, but that’s not on my name.

Neither really, my first name does date me to a certain period, but my surname is foreign so the 2 together make for an extremely uncommon name.

Hinders. It's totally dated (80's).

Neutral

Mine is a classic, pretty but thoroughly out of fashion and not yet coming back. I’ve never felt it helped or hindered me but I guess it is more “posh” than not.

I like my name. It’s often mistaken for two other commonly used names (for my generation) which I get called all the time. MIL calls me by one of those names! But my name is neither too pretty nor too harsh, it’s not well-used. It’s a nice name. I’d say it was a help, as it’s definitely not a hindrance.

Mine is very pretty, have actually never met another person with my name, but its diffiicult to pronounce at first glance for people who arent a speaker of the language of origin. If they ask how to pronouce it, I tell them and then its done. Never hindered me, its always a talking point as someone always says how lovely it is. It does get pronounced wrong but to the point it hindered me? No, but im very patriotic and proud of my name 🥰

I do feel for ladies call Karen these days though, every Karen i know is lovely and its a shame that so many people now hate their name because of the association and jokes made about it. Also knew a lady called Isis which is a beautiful name with a gorgeous meaning but obviously has connotations now too which caused problems for her with silly people who judged her.

Helps.

#1 most popular girl name in the 90s. I work in a ‘if your face fits’ career. I think having an obvious white middle class name contributes to ‘my face fitting’. No one at my level is unlike me which is disgusting tbh.

I have an extremely ordinary name. A Sarah, Emma, Lucy sort of name. I have always hated having to go by my name + surname initial (Sarah B, Emma C). I can't phone anyone and say "Hello, it's Lucy here" because there's a silence while they flip through the 7 Lucys it might be. It disadvantages me in that it makes me somewhat unmemorable, which is a disadvantage both at work and socially.

My husband has a traditional but unusual name and he is memorable because of it. A definite advantage (I suppose unless you're a spy or a criminal!)

We gave our children unusual names. I can report that based on my very small sample size, the absolute best name in terms of advantage is a name that is instantly recognisable as a name and consequently easy to spell, say and remember, but is unusual.

One of my kids has a very very unusual name and while she appreciates that it makes her known wherever she goes, she says it can be hard work explaining it. Another one of mine has an easy name with a tricky spelling (actually the correct, traditional spelling, not an Ehmilee or a Heaugaux), and she says it's tiresome explaining spelling and pronunciation to people. 3rd child has a very trad name that no one has ever met one of and he reports it's fab.

Absolutely love Alex for either sex.

Hindrance. Frumpy and dates me to the wrong period, I dropped it in favour of an unrelated nickname a long time ago.

I've name changed for this. I was called Wendy for the first 3 days of life. Then mum changed her mind and called me Ruth. No symmetry there!

I'm known as Ruthie, Rue, Rouge and Slate. Love all my nicknames.

I dislike my name. Always have. Makes me cringe.
It’s not that unusual, you would have heard it but probably don’t know or meet many with the name. It has a male variant, my spelling is without an
‘e’ on the end but so many people pronounce it the male way. Pisses me off and I rarely correct it.

Like I said, Sharon. Or Tracey, Maureen, Stacey. Not posh or even middle class. It makes it very hard for me to sell stuff to wealthy people because it breaks rapport as soon as they find out my name.

@bluefell I think Tracey is a very pretty name and will come back in time. As for Stacey, my antecedents through one grandparent are Russian and the Staceys I know are diminutives of Anastasia.

Also, if I want to buy something very expensive, I couldn't give a hoot about the vendor's name. I would about their knowledge, courtesy and service. Perhaps I'm not super rich enough!

I think it goes a long way in life

I have a classic first name, which I often shorten

@RosesAndHellebores , Also, if I want to buy something very expensive, I couldn't give a hoot about the vendor's name. I would about their knowledge, courtesy and service. Perhaps I'm not super rich enough!

If you went into a 'luxury' shop and the assistant's name was Stormi-Rae or Teejay, might you not do a double-take?

@BridgeOverTheRiverWye no, I wouldn't give it a second thought. Now if they had dirty finger nails.......

If I were buying a Bentley and Teejay at HR Owen was more helpful and offered a better deal than Hugo at Jack Barclay I'd give my business to Teejay.

That’s exactly what my parents did with my name. The name I’ve been known by all my life is actually my ‘middle name’. I like my name, but all through school I had to correct new teachers and ask them to address me by my middle name. I don’t tend to bother if I’m just going for professional appointments and such now.

Karen is actually a name I really like for females, because I’m a fan of The Carpenters and love Karen Carpenter’s beautiful voice. I like to say that it’s a form of “blasphemy” against Karen Carpenter to hold the name up as an example of an unpleasant kind of woman. (I’m being pretty tongue-in-cheek there, re. Blasphemy, but I do feel sad that a name I like (and the name of someone I’m a fan of) is now associated in so many people’s minds with unpleasantness.)

I wish Karen Carpenter was the first thing people thought of when they heard the name Karen, but no…mind, poor Karen’s been gone for 40 years now, and I suppose a lot of younger people will have no idea who she was.

Same as me